Social Circle - Contractors began construction on a state-funded training center Monday next to a new $1 billion Baxter International pharmaceutical plant that state officials hope can help lure scores of other biotech jobs.
The Georgia BioScience Training Center was a key piece in the lucrative package of incentives that helped draw Baxter to build the plant on a sprawling site in the eastern outskirts of Atlanta. The package, which tops $210 million, included $14 million to build the Quick Start facility and another $10 million to operate the program.
It's part of a state strategy of promising in-depth training and splashy facilities to entice companies to relocate or expand in Georgia. The state backed similar training centers for the Kia manufacturing center in west Georgia and Caterpillar's new plant near Athens.
Kia’s agreement allows the firm to eventually take over the training center, while Caterpillar’s is housed in a building owned by Athens Technical College. The Baxter facility, though, is different because it was designed with a broader mission in mind than training the 1,500 or so workers who eventually will staff the plant.
Gov. Nathan Deal said he sees it as a “precursor” to luring in new high-paying biotech jobs.
“We are in a very unique and elite position, and we’re going to work hard to make sure we stay there,” said Deal. “And one of the parts of that is to have the kind of workforce to make sure companies like Baxter come and stay here.”
It's the latest state effort to push Georgia to compete with growing hubs in North Carolina and California. State officials are eager to leverage any link between Baxter - whose courtship took so long that it earned the code-name "Project Marathon" - and new growth in the industry here.
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